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GP2: Rounds 9/10 – Nurburgring, Germany – July 11/12

Feature race

Nico Hulkenberg got off pole position in the feature race this afternoon, swept into the lead and controlled the race from there until the finish without any dramas or problems. He eventually crossed the line 13.9s clear of Piquet GP’s Roldan Rodriguez who got delayed by getting jumped by Lucas di Grassi (Racing Engineering) at the start and stuck behind him for the first part of the race until overtaking him at the pit stops. Rodriguez in turn finished well clear from Andreas Zuber in 3rd.

Series leader Romain Grosjean (Addax) was battling to climb from 14th on the grid and did impressively well, up to 6th place by the closing laps . But he was bottling up faster cars and coming under sustained pressure from Alvaro Parente (Ocean) when he abruptly slowed off the final corner with two laps to go, the victim of a hydraulics problem that dumped him out of the race. As a result, Hulkenberg closes to just one point off Grosjean in the series standings, and with Grosjean also starting the sprint race from well down the field there’s a strong chance Hulkenberg will exit his home event with the series lead.

In other events, Luca Filippi (Super Nova) spun after being hit by Grosjean in turn 4 and managed to clip the front right suspension of innocent bystander Luiz Razia (Fisichella) who had been working his way up impressively from last place to 19th by the time of the clash. Ten laps later, an ill-advised lunge by Pastor Maldonardo put Diego Nunes out of the race, and a few corners later Maldonado’s steering also gave up and sent his ART into the gravel and into a barrier.

Alberto Valerio (Piquet) was battling with Lucas di Grassi in the second half of the race after di Grassi opted to change all four tyres at the mandatory round of stops, but the threat from Valerio ended on lap 25 when the Silverstone winner parked with a suspected electrical problem.

Grosjean’s late retirement bumped Sergio Perez up to eighth, giving the Arden rookie the final point and pole for tomorrow’s sprint race.

After the race, Grosjean and Maldonardo were handed five place grid penalties for the sprint race for the accidents they caused, while Valerio was also penalised for an unsafe exits from the pits.

Sprint race

Nico Hulkenberg made it a one-two after showing that he can undertake with style, and can manage the dark, damp, greasy conditions of the early morning Nurburgring with ease.

The race was run on intermediates as the moisture hung heavy in the cold air, and the drivers struggled in the early laps with spray sent up into the air by the cars in front. But the track dried as the race progressed, although not quite to the extent to require a flurry of late pit stops to take on slick tyres, and the race just managed to finish all its scheduled laps before hitting the time limit for the GP2 sprint event.

Hulkenberg started from 8th on the grid but made solid, steady and irresistible progress up the field until he was running in second place. Vitaly Petrov had claimed the lead at the green flag and looked set to stroll off into the distance, but Hulkenberg had cut the gap back to 0.6s when news came that Petrov was to be given a drive-thru penalty for colliding with Lucas di Grassi’s Racing Engineering car at the start. Such was the lead they had built up before the very late announcement of the penalty, Petrov was able to carry out the drive-thru and still finish in 4th despite a late spin on track after catching his front left wheel on a kerb

Romain Grosjean was on a serious damage limitation mission after a grid penalty saw him starting from 22nd, and he impressed many by making it up to 5th place immediately behind his team mate by the end, although this still means he’s lost the GP2 series lead to Hulkenberg by 4pts.

Piquet duo Alberto Valerio and Roldan Rodriguez were the only drivers to risk a late change to slicks, but their performance – finishing a lap down – dissuaded anyone else from trying it even as a dry line appeared for the final laps and the duo started to record laps five seconds quicker than the rest of the field.